Sharks' collapse complete with 5-1 loss

Big names disappear in lackluster loss

Updated 11:57 pm, Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Photo: Associated Press

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Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar, of Slovenia, right, scores a goal past San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31), of Finland, and left wing Matt Nieto (83) during the second period of Game 7 of an NHL hockey first-round playoff series in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, April 30, 2014. (AP Photo)

Los Angeles Kings center Anze Kopitar, of Slovenia, right, scores a goal past San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (31), of Finland, and left wing Matt Nieto (83) during the second period of Game 7 of an NHL

SAN JOSE, CA - APRIL 30: Logan Couture #39 of the San Jose Sharks is checked by Dustin Brown #23 of the Los Angeles Kings in Game Seven of the First Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center on April 30, 2014 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) less

SAN JOSE, CA - APRIL 30: Logan Couture #39 of the San Jose Sharks is checked by Dustin Brown #23 of the Los Angeles Kings in Game Seven of the First Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center on ... more

Photo: Ezra Shaw, Getty Images

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Apr 30, 2014; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan instructs against the Los Angeles Kings during the third period in game seven of the first round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP Center at San Jose. The Kings defeated the Sharks 5-1. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Apr 30, 2014; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan instructs against the Los Angeles Kings during the third period in game seven of the first round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs at SAP

The Sharks have had other flameouts. They've been frustrating, anemic, puzzling, underachieving - often all on the same shift. Almost always in the playoffs.

"There's been a lot of low points," said Patrick Marleau, who's been around for most of them and knows what people say about the Sharks at this time of year.

"I don't usually agree with it," Marleau said. "But you do something like this and it's not easy to take."

Because Wednesday night was the absolute nadir. There is no description for it other than the cruelest: a terrible choke job - one of the worst in NHL history.

Before Wednesday night's 5-1 cherry on the top of the Sharks' complete collapse, only three hockey teams had blown a 3-0 series lead, one in 1942, one in 1975 and the Boston Bruins four years ago. By that pattern, we shouldn't have had to witness such a brutal collapse for another three decades or so.

Instead, the Sharks became the fourth team to reach the lowest level of ignominy, blowing a series in epic fashion.

"They all hurt, but this one probably looks the worst," Joe Pavelski said.

That it did. The Sharks lost Game 7 in the same ways that they lost the previous three games: looking flat, lackluster, failing to score on the power play, failing to grab the momentum, getting very little production from their biggest, highest-paid names.

"The guys on the power play are our go-to guys. We didn't produce for the last four games and their guys did," Logan Couture said. "That's the difference."

This was the second consecutive year the Sharks lost Game 7 to the Kings, but unlike last year, this game was played on San Jose's home ice. And unlike last year, they had four chances to close out the series and couldn't do it.

"We won't go away quietly, that's for sure," Kings coach Darryl Sutter had warned after his team lost Game 3.

Prescient.

While the Kings' best players skated with confidence, nobody stepped up for the Sharks. Maybe they didn't realize the game was being played on the 20th anniversary of Jamie Baker's winning goal in Game 7 in Detroit, a shot that shocked the hockey world.

The Sharks, as Marleau has heard so often, are perennial playoff underachievers. But nothing before has been this brutal. The Sharks outscored the Kings 17-8 in the first three games and then lost their aggressiveness. Of the four losses, the two worst came on the Sharks' home ice. The Sharks went 0-15 on the power play in their final three games.

Once again, the Sharks succeeded in smothering their crowd and home ice advantage. After taking a 1-0 lead 28 seconds into the second period on a goal by Matt Irwin (playing only because of the injury to Marc-Edouard Vlasic), the Sharks went into a shell. By the fourth lifeless power play, the fans were booing. So it was no surprise that as the period was winding down, the Kings' big guns converted on an odd-man rush: Justin Williams to Anze Kopitar to give the Kings a 2-1 lead.

The Kings scored again early in the third period to make it 3-1. The rest was just Ice Capades and two empty-netters.

Once again we are left puzzling over the Amazing Shrinking Sharks, who come up so small in the biggest moments. Do we blame McLellan? That's what often happens in the NHL, where coaches get shuffled like old playing cards, but McLellan wasn't on the ice. Do we blame Antti Niemi, who was back in goal after Alex Stalock couldn't close out the series in Los Angeles? Easy, but not the right call.

The blame probably lies with general manager Doug Wilson, who has continued to build teams of mostly nice guys and centers them on two "stars" who play well in the regular season but not in the playoffs. Once again, Joe Thornton and Marleau were missing in action too often at big moments in this series. This year, Pavelski and Couture also vanished.

Marleau and Thornton are both 34 and locked up with contract extensions for three more years, until they're 37. Which, in hockey years, is the equivalent of 102. It will be interesting to see if the Sharks can improve their team while also getting old.

The scorching outside temperatures Wednesday only served to remind everyone that San Jose remains the only California hockey team never to win the Stanley Cup. But in terms of franchise embarrassments, that's low on the list. What happened in the past week is now at the top.

Five hundred miles south, the Anaheim Ducks were basking in the sun and waiting for whoever won this series. Now the Ducks and the Kings will play each other in a freeway series, while the Sharks will sit at home, wondering once again how it could all go so horribly wrong.

"This," said Couture, "is the kind of series that rips your heart out."

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